Don't Know Why
by aTops1190
Summary: Before he left for Iraq he promised her forever but he couldn't keep his promise. Five years later, she's wondering how she can be falling in love with his best friend when she gave her heart to him years before..
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or any of the characters.**

**A/N: So, this is A/U and for the first time, I'm posting a story without having most of it written. In fact, I have just this chapter written so I can't promise that updates will be extremely frequent but I will do my best. I've had this idea bouncing around for a few weeks and finally got down to writing it and I'm pretty happy with this. Since I'm fairly new to this board (as a writer, not a reader) I am wondering if anyone would be interested in beta-ing this fic for me. Let me know! ****I actually didn't see any of tonight episode until after I'd written this chapter. I don't get the CW so I just saw a few of the naley scenes on youtube. Kind of wierd when you see the similiarites but I don't want to say to much about the fic but I hope you all enjoy it and have faith in me! Please review... I'd love to hear what you think.**

**-A.**

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_She ran her fingers along his strong jaw, their eyes locked together; savouring the last minutes they would spend together before he boarded the plane that would take him to Iraq. He could see the tears forming in her eyes and watched her blink as she tried to push them back. "I'm going to love you forever, Haley James," he whispered to her, wrapping his arms tighter around her tiny frame, pulling her tighter to his chest. "Always remember that."_

_She nodded her head as the tears she'd been holding back since the day he'd told her he enlisted began rolling down her cheeks. "Don't be the hero, Nathan," she sobbed as she clutched onto his t-shirt and buried her face in his hard chest. "Please. I need you in my life." _

_He kissed the top of her head and let his fingers play with the ends of her hair. "Nothing is going to happen to me Hales. In two years, I'm going to be right back here and we're going to get married and start our family." She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears and make up streaked across her face, and smiled, dreaming of the perfect family she would have with him. He wiped the stray tears off of her face with his thumb before leaning down and taking her mouth with his. The kiss was slow, neither battling for dominance, neither wanting it to end either; a kiss that would have to last them two years._

_When he finally pulled away, he saw fresh tears pooling in her eyes. "God, I love you Haley," he whispered, their eyes meeting again. She nodded, knowing that she couldn't rely on her voice right now, hoping that he would know she felt the exact same way about him as he did about her. Maybe even more. "I need you to promise me something though, Haley."_

"_Nathan, don't," she pleaded, turning away from him. _

_Ignoring her, he took her face in his hands and made her look up at him. "If something happens to me over there, promise me you'll be happy. Promise me that you'll find love again. Promise me that you'll keep going."_

"_Nathan..."_

"_Promise me, Haley. I can't concentrate on staying alive if I know that you won't be okay if something would happen to me. I need to know that you'll be happy. So, promise me," he said softly, not letting her look away from him. _

"_I promise," she sobbed, as her tears fell down her face again. She pulled herself into his chest once more, breathing in his familiar scent. "Don't you die, Nathan Scott. I don't want a life with anybody but you."_

_They held onto each other for a final moment until Nathan's flight was called. As he kissed her again, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and slowly slid it on her left hand. She pulled away from the kiss and stared at the silver band wrapped around her ring finger. "I promise that I'm coming back for you, Hales. It's going to be me and you, always and forever." _

"_Always and forever," she repeated, smiling as she admired the simple ring on her finger. "I love you," she whispered, looking up at him, proud of the man he'd become and of the work he was doing. As much as it killed her to know that, no matter what he promised her he could die, she knew that it was something he believed in. Something he felt he had to do. _

"_I love you too, baby," he replied. Leaning in, their lips brushed against each other's one last time, and then the final boarding call was announced over the loud speaker. He picked up his bags and gave her a sad smile before walking through the security gate towards the plane. His heart, body and mind were all screaming at him to turn around and go back to her, but he continued walking. He found his seat, stuffed his bag in the overhead compartment and sat down, offering a small smile to the brown haired guy next to him._

"_You ready for this?" the guy asked, his knees bouncing nervously indicating that he clearly wasn't. _

"_I don't know," Nathan replied, watching out the window as they started to move away from the airport. _

"_I'm Jake. Jake Jagielski."_

"_Nathan Scott, nice to meet you," Nathan replied, reaching out his hand and shaking it with Jake's. Then the plane started to move and within minutes, they were air born. "Good bye, Tree Hill," he mumbled, watching the town below him disappear as the plane flew through the clouds._

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She sat at the kitchen table, her hands wrapped around the warm cup of coffee in front of her as she slowly read through the morning newspaper. She used to hate reading the paper; every article about the war in Iraq was a constant reminder that his life was in danger. But now that things were different, she realized just how much she missed and loved waking up and reading the morning paper before heading out to work.

"Morning babe," the familiar deep voice said from behind her, as he wrapped his strong arms around her and nuzzled into her neck, getting a sniff of her freshly washed hair. "What's going on in the world today?"

"The economy sucks," she offered half heartedly, as she turned around in her seat, pulling him close enough that she could kiss him. After pulling away she turned back to her paper and leaned back into his chest, loving the feeling of being wrapped in his arms. "I'm falling more in love with you every day," she said softly as he started to plant a trail of kisses from her collar bone up to the sensitive spot behind her ear.

"The paper says that?" he quipped, tickling her sides gently.

"No, I say that," she replied pointedly, turning around, a brilliant smile stretched across her face, to kiss him again.

Within seconds, they were lost in each other. Neither heard the knocking at the front door or the sound of it opening and closing as the person who was waiting let them self in. The sound of that person clearing their voice from behind the love struck couple did finally separate them.

"Oh, my gosh, Luke I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to keep you waiting," she exclaimed, pulling away from his embrace and quickly jumping up to gather her things.

"No worries," he said, reaching around to scratch the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable with the situation he'd just witnessed. "I'll just wait for you out in the car," he added, motioning towards the front door. "Good to see you, Jake," he said, nodding in Jake's direction as he left the kitchen and soon after the house.

"He's never going to like me, is he?" Jake questioned as he took a seat at the kitchen table, watching as Haley scrambled to throw some last minute things in her bag.

"Jake, come on! He does like you, it's just hard for him because he's Nathan's brother," Haley said, giving Jake a sad smile as she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned down and kissed him quickly before grabbing her cell phone from off the kitchen table and tossing it in her bag. "I'll see you tonight, sweetheart. I love you."

"Love you too, babe."

A moment later she was out the door, hoping into the front seat of Lucas' Jeep. "Sorry about that," she said softly, knowing that he wasn't impressed with the scene he'd witnessed upon walking into her kitchen. "I know you're not a huge fan of Jake but..."

"I'm not exactly a little fan either," Luke interrupted without looking away from the road. She looked down at her hands, finding the hangnail on her thumb particularly interesting, and remained quiet. She hated when he got like this. He was one of her best friends and usually was so supportive of her, except, apparently, when it came to her relationship with Jake. As he slowed down for the red light ahead of them he could tell she was upset by his comment. He reached over and took her hand. "I'm an ass and I'm sorry. It's just... hard."

"I know," she said softly.

"Because he was my brother."

"I know."

"And he really love you, Haley."

"I know, Luke. I loved him too."

Taking his hand away from hers, he ran it through his short blonde hair and sighed. "I miss him," he said, finally looking away from the road and the red light and glancing over at the passenger's seat.

"I miss him too."

They drove silently the rest of the way and when they reached the parking lot and got out of Luke's vehicle, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they walked together towards the front doors of the gym. Once inside, away from the crisp fall air, the both paused, looking at the wall ahead of them.

'_Nathan Scott Field House: In memory of Tree Hill's Hero who died honourably in the line of duty in Iraq'_

"Have a good day, Hales," Luke whispered, giving her shoulder a quick squeeze before walking towards his office.

She stood in front of the wall, looking at his photo for a moment longer, as she did each morning she walked into that school. She'd always said he was the most beautiful man she'd ever met but in his photo, his eyes, which had always been so full of life, her favourite physical feature of his, seemed lifeless and dead. The army had killed him long before the bombing.

"Always and forever," she whispered before turning away and walking through the school to her own classroom.

It had been five years since she'd said goodbye to him in the airport but she knew that he still had her heart, just as much as he had the day he promised he'd come back for her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to those of you who read and left feedback, it meant alot. I worked really hard to get this next chapter done quickly and, again you just have to have faith in me. I'm a Naley fan myself and hate seeing them with other people but this story is a little bit different... Please stick with it though!**

**Credit for the dialogue in the flashback is totally givin to the writers of One Tree Hill. I don't own the show or it's characters either. Although I wish I did... Read, Review & Enjoy!**

**-A.**

"Hello? Anybody home?" she called out as she walked through the front door of her parents' house, knowing that both of her parents were home. By the time she had her boots off and jacket hung on the coat rack, both of her parents were making their way into the living room to meet her. "Hi guys," she greeted them, going to hug first her mother and then her father.

"Haley-Bop," Jimmy said softly, holding his daughter tight to his chest. "How're you doing, my little girl?"

"I'd be fine if you stopped calling me Haley-Bop and your little girl," she replied lightly, smiling as she backed away from him and sat down beside her mom on the couch.

"Where's Jake?" Lydia asked, wrapping her arm around Haley's shoulders, pulling her daughter close to her side. "He is joining us, isn't he?"

Haley nodded. "Of course. He's just running late from a doctor's appointment in Charlotte but he said he'd be here before supper was ready, don't worry." She took a deep breath, inhaling the familiar scent of her childhood home, feeling safe. "The doctors are saying that his hand is getting better. Hopefully with a few more months of therapy he'll regain full feeling in it."

"That's great," Jimmy said, although he hardly sounded as enthused as one might think he should be.

Haley nodded and then silently rested her head on her mother's shoulder like she had used to do when she was a little girl. She closed her eyes, wishing that she could feel this protected all the time. When the timer went off in the kitchen, she sat up, allowing her mother to go and turn off the oven and sighed, glancing at the pictures that lined the mantle of the fireplace.

She stood and walked across the room to look at them closer. "You guys should really take this down," she said, turning to her father with a photo of her and Nathan taken from their high school graduation, just days before he had been deployed to Iraq. "I'm with Jake now and it makes him uncomfortable when people act like he stole me from Nathan."

Jimmy stood up and walked over to her, taking the picture from her hands and placing it back on the mantle. "Nathan was like our son and since we never got to have a wedding picture taken of the two of you, this is what we make do with," he said slowly, his fingers running over the edges of the frame as he spoke. "He would have married you, Haley. He wanted to in high school, he asked me for permission and I told him to wait until after you'd finished college. If I knew..."

"Hello?!" Jake's voice rang through the house, as he let himself in through the front door, cutting Jimmy James off. A moment later, he walked into the living room, smiling when he saw Haley and her father. "Hey baby," he said softly, wrapping his hand around her waist, pulling her into his side and kissing her temple lightly. "Mr. James," he added, extending his hand to Haley's father.

Jimmy looked at it for a moment before shaking it lightly, noticing how Jake's hand could hardly grip his own. The loss of feeling and movement in his right hand after an encounter with a car bomb had meant a one way ticket for Jake back to the States. A week later, Nathan had been killed in a suicide bombing. "It's good to see you, Jake," Jimmy said politely. "I should go see if Lydia needs a hand in the kitchen. You'll excuse me, won't you?"

Without waiting for an answer, Jimmy left the room, leaving the young couple alone. Haley gave him a weak smile; her father had never been what you would call welcoming when it came to Jake and it wasn't something that went unnoticed by either of them. "So, the doctors said your hand was getting better?" she asked, hoping to get his mind off of her father's inhospitable manners, her fingers lightly tracing over his own.

Nodding and smiling weakly, he attempted to slowly clench his hand into a fist but it seemed more like he was gripping an invisible baseball. "A few more months of therapy and I might be able to throw a right hook again," he joked.

She smiled at him, lacing her fingers through his before leaning in and kissing him softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lydia said, as she walked into the room, catching the two in their romantic embrace. "I just wanted to let you both know that dinner was ready." Giving them a feeble smile, she left the living room, heading back into the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," Haley said softly, feeling like she was back in high school again. She was twenty-two years old and she was still embarrassed when her parents caught her kissing her boyfriend.

"No problem," he laughed. "We should go. Your mom's food tastes the best when it's hot."

"Coffee, Jake?" Lydia asked, holding out a mug for him. He took the mug in his good hand, thanking her before taking a sip. "Is it all right?" she asked.

"It's great. Thanks Lydia," he replied, smiling across the room at her as she sat down on the couch next to Jimmy who had picked up a book after supper and was now completely concentrated on it. Jake new Haley's father didn't like him. He knew that if he had had his way, Jake would have gone back to Savannah and never stepped foot in Tree Hill after being sent back from Iraq. He knew that Jimmy had always wanted Haley to end up with Nathan and despite knowing that Jimmy would never accept or approve of his relationship with Haley, he still made an effort to get to know the man.

"So Jimmy, have you heard about the basketball team at Duke this year?" Jake asked from across the room, getting Jimmy to look up from his book for the first time since they'd sat down in the living room after supper. "I hear they're doing really well; favoured to win the NCAA Championship this year."

Jimmy nodded. "Hmm, good for them," he said before looking back down at his book.

Haley squeezed his arm and offered him a small smile before turning back to the TV where the latest episode of her mother's new favourite prime time drama was playing.

"There's actually something else I wanted to talk to you all about," Jake said, getting the attention of the three James' in the room. "I hadn't really thought much about this; I mean, I've thought about it but when I was in Charlotte today it just hit me that this was what I wanted. It`s kind of spontaneous because Haley and I have never even talked about it but, I know this is what I want and I figured now would be the perfect time to do this since you both mean so much to Haley and she means so much to me."

Haley's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Jake, what are you talking about?" she asked, interrupting his ramble.

He stood from his place beside her, dug his hand deep into the pocket of his jeans and a moment later pulled it out, holding a small velvet box between his fingers. He dropped to his knee and took her left hand in his, smiling up at her shocked face. "Oh my god," she whispered, her free hand covering her mouth.

"Haley James, I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone and I want you to know that I will do everything I can to protect you and care for you. I can't imagine my life without you. So I'm asking you to marry me..."

"Oh my god," Haley whispered again, her eyes filling with tears.

"Oh my gosh," Lydia gasped, turning to look up at Jimmy's face. His eyes were wide, like he'd just witnessed a terrible car wreck, and he had lost most of the colour from his face.

"Oh my god," Haley repeated as the tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Haley?" Jake urged her.

"Oh my god," she repeated again, her eyes locked onto the engagement ring, sparkling in the opened velvet box in Jake's hand.

"Excuse me," Jimmy said as he stood up and walked out of the room, his footsteps heard going up the stairs a moment later.

"Oh my god," Haley repeated again.

"Haley?"

"I should go talk to Jimmy," Lydia said as she stood from the couch and left in the same direction her husband had moments before.

"Haley?" Jake repeated, getting off his knee, moving to sit beside her on the couch once again. He took both her hands in his and squeezed them as best as he could. "Baby, what are you thinking?"

"_Marry me." _

"_What?" she laughed, running her hand through her hair as she rolled her eyes. "Nathan, come on... be serious. Give me a real dare."_

"_Marry me," he repeated, pulling her closer to his side._

"_Stop it," she laughed, "you're embarrassing me."_

"_Come on, people get married all the time," he said, looking into her eyes, hoping she would see that he was serious. He'd been trying to think of a way to ask her for the last few weeks and the game of Truth or Dare she'd proposed as they were in his bed together, cuddling after one of their infamous, long make out sessions, seemed to be the perfect opportunity to bring it up without scaring her away. _

"_But we're in high school, Nathan."_

"_So what, I'm emancipated," he shot back. _

"_People don't get married in high school, it's not normal."_

"_So! I'm not normal and what I'm feeling is defiantly not normal," he replied, sitting up in bed. "I love you, Haley James and I'm going to love you forever."_

"_I love you too, Nathan Scott but..."_

"_So, why can't forever start today?" he questioned, interrupting her. Again, he looked deep into her eyes and he could see that she was fighting to think of excuses not to say yes. They were meant to be together, they both knew it. _

"_Because... you didn't ask my father's permission," she blurted out as the idea popped into her mind. "You know how old fashioned my parents are. They'd have you killed if we got engaged before you asked their permission."_

_He laughed. "You're parents aren't old fashioned at all," he pointed out. _

_She huffed. He was right. "Well I am," she said slowly," and since I was a little girl, I always dreamed that the man of my dreams would ask my dad's permission to marry me and then he'd propose to me sitting on the lake in one of those little row-boats that you can rent out."_

"_So if I get your dad's permission, then you'll marry me?"_

"_If you get my dad's permission and rent the row-boat at the lake."_

"_If I get your dad's permission and rent the row-boat at the lake, then you'll marry me?" _

"_Then I'll marry you."_

_He smiled before pressing his lips to her forehead. "Done," he whispered, loving how her eyes sparkled as he looked into them._

"I'll marry you," she said softly, smiling as she saw Nathan sitting in front of her, staring deep into her eyes.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to everyone who read the last 2 chapters and reviewed. I know that it doesn't really seem like a Naley fic, and I refuse to say anything about the future of it, but I will again say, have faith. I hope you enjoy this chapter.. Please continue to review!!**

**-A.**

* * *

She had a book propped open on her desk and was slowly eating her lunch as she tried to concentrate on reading the pages in front of her, but she was constantly being distracted by the sparkling diamond engagement ring on her left hand. Pausing for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, she stared down at her new piece of jewellery, trying to think of the moment her mind told her mouth to say 'yes' to Jake's proposal. She'd been thinking about it all morning and had yet to figure it out.

She sighed and went back to reading her book. A moment later, without a knock, her classroom door opened and a high pitch shriek filled her room. "Oh. My. God. You're engaged!" Before Haley could respond, the intruder had rushed to her desk and was holding her left hand in the air, carefully inspecting the ring on her finger. "I can't believe it. You're engaged. You're really engaged."

Haley scoffed and rolled her eyes, pulling her hand away from her best friend. "I'm really engaged, Brooke," she confirmed, closing her book and tucking it into the top drawer of her desk. "How did you find out?"

"Lucas told me," she said simply as she boosted herself up so she was sitting on one of the counters in Haley's class.

"When did you talk to Lucas?" Haley questioned, handing her friend the last half of the can of Pepsi she'd been drinking with her lunch, knowing that she'd stand up and take in a moment anyways.

"Thanks," she replied, taking a sip of the drink. "Like three minutes after he left you this morning," she explained. "He called me to see if it was for real or if you were just playing some trick on him for being a complete ass to you the other day. I thought he was the one playing a trick on me but then he told me about the ring and I knew you wouldn't put a ring on that finger unless it was for real."

Haley shook her head and sat back down at her desk. "Of course Lucas would think it was a joke," she mumbled as she rubbed her forehead.

"What I want to know is why, I, your best friend, had to find out through someone else that you were engaged? This is the kind of thing you let someone, especially a best friend, know right away so that they don't hear it through the grape vine. I can't believe I heard you were engaged through Lucas Scott. Lucas Scott, of all people."

Haley laughed. "If anyone other than me was going to tell you I was engaged, it would be Lucas."

"And why do you say that?" Brooke questioned defensively.

"Because despite what you say, you two are still totally in love with each other and he can't keep anything a secret from you. If I had asked him, specifically not to tell you about my engagement, there's no way he could have kept it from you. He'd know how much it would kill you to not know and he'd have to tell you."

Brooke folded her arms across her chest and crossed one of her legs over the other. "I'll have you know Miss. James, that I haven't been in love with Lucas Scott since the twelfth grade and anything that has gone on with us since then has been purely physical."

"So explain to me why you hate every girl that Lucas has dated since high school." Haley shot back, knowing that Brooke would have no come back to that. As expected, Brooke opened her mouth to deny it but stopped herself before anything came out of her mouth. "That's what I thought," Haley said, smirking with satisfaction.

"Whatever, Haley," Brooke said, shaking her head. "I don't understand why we're talking about my love life when you're freaking engaged. What happened to 'Jake is great and I love him, but we'll never get married?'"

Haley ran her hand through her hair and looked away from Brooke. She and Jake had been together for almost a year and a half and, since the moment she felt that she was falling for him, she'd always said that, no matter how much they loved each other, they'd never end up married. She had believed it, right up until the minute she said she'd marry him and even then, she still couldn't remember the thoughts that went through her mind before she'd accepted his proposal.

"If this isn't what you want, Haley, you should tell him now," Brooke said, her voice breaking Haley's train of thought, making her turn back to face her friend. "Don't start planning the wedding and then decided when you're getting into your dress that saying yes was a mistake. Jake will understand if you tell him now, but you'll lose him forever if you wait and give him hope."

Thinking about what Brooke had just said, Haley looked down at her right hand and the simple silver band that she wore on her ring finger. Sliding it off, she smiled as she read the letters that had been engraved into the inside of the band. _'NS + HJS ~A&F' _

"I know you thought it would be Nathan, babe. We all thought it would be Nathan. But if Jake makes you happy, don't let the memory of Nathan ruin that. Know that he loved you and that you loved him and that a love like yours is the stuff that stories are made of."

The bell signalling the end of lunch echoed through the nearly empty classroom. Brooke hopped down from the counter top and walked behind Haley, squeezing her shoulder gently. "If being married to Jake is going to make the hole in your heart where Nathan used to be smaller, then do it. Marry Jake, love Jake, start your family with Jake, and always remember the love you and Nathan shared," she said softly before bending down and kissing the top of her friends head softly. "I love you Haley James and I'm here for you if you need me."

Brooke was almost out the door when she heard Haley's small voice thank her. She left the classroom wondering whether any amount of time would be long enough for her best friend to get her heart back from the boy who she'd given it to years before.

"How many kids do you want?" Jake asked softly later that night as he held Haley's naked body close to his, his fingers playing with the ends of her hair.

"Kids?" she repeated, looking up at him.

He laughed. "Yeah, you know. Kids; first they're babies with the diapers and the crying and then they're toddlers, running around the house destroying everything in their path. Then they're gone to school, learning their ABC's and the next minute they're graduating from high school and we're driving them across the country to UCLA, watching as they become doctors or lawyers. Kids. Our kids."

"You want kids?" she questioned, pulling away from him so she could look at him better.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I've thought about it. A couple of troublemaking boys who would love football, like I did, and then after a little girl, with your eyes, who would be our little angle. You don't want kids?"

"I guess I never really thought about it," she said softly, resting her head back on his shoulder.

"_Nathan, come on! Just hold her," Haley laughed as she tried to hand Lily over to Nathan, who had yet to hold her in the five months since she'd been born. _

_Haley had volunteered to babysit Lily while Keith, Karen and Luke were at a wedding in Raleigh. Of course, she had brought Nathan along for the day but he wasn't being nearly as much fun, or help, as she had hoped he'd be. _

"_Haley, stop it," he shot back, standing from the couch and moving as far across the room as possible, to the reclining chair. "I don't want to hold her."_

"_Mean old Uncle Nathan doesn't want to hold you," Haley said in a baby voice she'd perfected after her sister had her first baby. "She's not going to bite you, Nathan. And even if she did, she doesn't have teeth; it wouldn't hurt."_

"_I don't care if she bites me, I just don't want to hold her right now."_

"_You've been saying that for five months!" Haley exclaimed, bouncing the baby lightly in her arms as she stood across the room from Nathan who was trying his best to ignore her. "One day she's not going to be small enough for you to hold and you'll be sorry that you didn't do any of this baby stuff."_

"_I doubt I'll regret not changing her dirty diapers," he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes before turning back to the TV where a NBA game was flashing on the screen. _

"_You better figure out your issue with babies, Nathan Scott because there is no way the father of my children isn't going to hold his kids or change their diapers."_

"_Father of your children?" Nathan repeated, looking away from the game again. _

_She smirked at him. "What? You want to marry me but not be the father of my children?"_

"_I didn't know you were thinking about kids already. It's going to be close to five years before we can get married since your dad told me I had to wait until after college. I'm just surprised," Nathan confessed. _

"_Yeah, well since I have so long to plan our wedding, I might as well sta-ahhh!" She clutched her side, her face showing that she was obviously in pain._

_Her scream had Nathan out of his seat in record time and he had quickly swiped Lily into his arms before leading her to the couch, sitting her down beside him. "Haley! Baby, are you okay?" he asked, tucking the loose pieces of hair behind her ear, unsure of what else he could do. _

_A moment later, her whimpers turned into laughter and he was left stunned beside her. When he heard her mumbled through her laughter something about 'getting him good', he finally realized that she'd been faking it. "What the hel...What the heck, Haley?" he said, catching himself before he swore in front of his niece. _

"_I had to do something to get you to hold that baby," she said, looking down at Lily who, even through all the excitement, was happily cooing in Nathan's arms. _

"_You're so not funny. Don't do that ever again!" he scolded her. _

"_Yes, dad," she replied playfully. _

"_Here, take her back," Nathan said as he tried to hand Lily back over to Haley._

"_You're doing fine, Nathan," she assured him, settling in close to his side. "I don't get why you don't want to hold her. It's like, the easiest thing to do with a baby. There's no mess, no tears."_

_Nathan looked down at the little baby in his arms and couldn't help but smile back at her as she flashed him her gummy grin. "I don't want to break her," he admitted softly. Since the day they'd seen Lily in the hospital, he'd thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, next to Haley, and for some reason, he instantly thought that if he got too close to her, he'd end up hurting her. _

"_You won't break her, I promise," Haley whispered softly as she rested her head on his shoulder._

_They sat silently together on the couch for a few moments; both thinking that someday this would be their life. Both excited for the day that it would be._

"_So, how many kids are we having?" Nathan asked, breaking the silence that was surrounding them._

"_Three. Two boys, who love basketball like you, and a girl..."_

"_... with your eyes," he said, finishing her sentence, the image of their perfect family filling his head. "It sounds perfect."_

_She smiled and leaned into him, kissing him gently. "I love you, Nathan."_

"A few boys and a girl sounds good to me, Jake," she said softly, although she was pretty sure that he had fallen asleep about halfway through her day dream.


	4. Chapter 4

**I appologize for the wait for this update! I wrote my first university final today so I have been busy with end of the semester type things like term papers and studying. So much writing and none of it was enjoyable. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It maybe be a bit confusing because there is a lot of information in some parts and then very little in another part, but it will all be explained eventually. Thanks to those who have read and reviewed the last couple chapters.. I know it doesn't seem like a Naley fic but I'll say it again, as I've said it so many times before... HAVE FAITH!**

**Alright; read review & enjoy!**

**-a.**

"God, I hate these thing. They're so boring," Brooke muttered as she sat down between Lucas and Haley at the circular table in the large banquet room. She took a bite of the large steak sandwich in front of her and moaned. "At least the lunches are good," she added, her mouth still full of food.

"That's attractive," Lucas laughed, rolling his eyes. Brooke could be the biggest girl one moment and in the next, act like a forty-year-old man.

She took another bite of her sandwich and chewed loudly, making sure that he could see the half-chewed food in her mouth. "Shut up, Luke!"

Peyton, who was sitting across the table from Brooke, laughed and shook her head at their bickering. Anyone who spent more than half an hour with them would say that they fought like an old, married couple and their good friends knew that they made up like a young, married couple. They'd dated in high school and, though they tried the long distance thing when they went off to college, their relationship died. Now, living in the same small town, they liked to say they were friends with benefits but everyone knew that soon enough they'd get their acts together and realize they were supposed to be together.

"Have you and Jake picked a date yet, Haley?" Peyton asked, filling her fork with salad.

She shook her head as she swallowed her mouthful, trying to be a little bit more polite than Brooke had been a few moments ago. "Not yet. We haven't really talked that much about the wedding. I think it might be a long engagement," Haley informed the group, not failing to notice the way Luke's eyes lit up as she spoke.

"Do you know when you want to have it? A summer wedding? Or maybe the fall?" Peyton questioned before popping another fork-full of salad into her mouth.

"Um, summer I think. That way I'll be on holidays."

"July?" Brooke asked, her mind racing with ideas of the perfect summer wedding dress she could design and make for Haley. All throughout high school she'd always thought she'd always dreamed of becoming a designer but when graduation rolled around and all of her friends were going to college, she decided to follow them and four years later, she graduated from UCLA with a degree in education. Now, she was designing dresses for fun, only making things for herself and some of her friends.

Haley shook her head. "Not July. Nathan's birthday was in July. I couldn't get married in July."

"So, August." Peyton said.

Haley shook her head again. "Definitely not August. Nathan and I had talked about getting married in August."

Peyton shook her head. "So, are you going to invent another calendar with an extra summer month, because you're blowing through your holidays pretty quickly here, Haley."

Haley looked down at her sandwich and silently wished that the subject of the wedding would be dropped. Unlike Brooke and Lucas who had both gone to high school with her and Nathan and knew him, Peyton moved to Tree Hill after college because of a job opening for an art teacher at Tree Hill High. She had never met Nathan and had only heard about Haley's relationship with him through town gossip as neither Haley, Brooke or Lucas would go into any detail about it. She didn't understand that when Haley said that she and Nathan had planned on getting married in August, she meant it.

"I never understood the long engagement thing," Peyton said, trying to get past the awkward silence that had surrounded them. "If someone asked me to marry them I'd be in Vegas the next night, before they had time to change their mind." It was a joke, but no one found it funny.

"Whenever you feel it's right, Haley," Brooke said softly to her best friend, giving her shoulder a small squeeze and offering her a weak smile. She then turned to Peyton and gave her a look telling her that the conversation was now over and the topic wasn't to be brought up again. And then, a moment later, she was biting into her sandwich and talking with her mouth opened again, mostly because she knew it would bother Lucas. "What do you high school teachers have this afternoon? Maybe I'll sneak into your group. Do you think they'd notice?"

"Yes, you're way too cheerful to be a high school teacher," Lucas replied, nudging her gently in the shoulder. "And stop talking with your mouth full."

"Bite me!"

The four of them were spending the day at a teachers conference for the entire school division and, as she usually had something to complain about, Brooke wasn't happy that they split the groups up into elementary and high school teachers. "All the people in my group are like eighty! It's not fair that you three get to hang out together all day," she'd said when they first met during their lunch break, causing the other three, first year teachers to laugh.

"We should just ditch the whole thing. I don't get anything out of these stupid conferences anyways," Lucas suggested, although they all knew that he didn't mean it. Lucas had never skipped a day of anything in his life.

"_Nathan, come on," she giggled as she tried to push him off of her. "We're going to be late if we don't leave right now!" She'd been saying that for almost fifteen minutes, but each time she tried to get out of bed, Nathan would pull her back, saying that he just wanted a few more minutes. _

"_Let's just ditch class and stay here for the rest of the afternoon. You don't need to go to math or geography; you're the smartest person I know, Hales," he said, dipping in to place kisses along her exposed collar bone and up her neck. _

"_They'll call our parents if we miss class, Nathan, and my parents would kill me!" She knew that she could probably skip class and tell her parents she was helping Principal Turner show a new student around the school without them thinking a thing about it. But did she really want to lie to her parents? The way Nathan was kissing her right now, and the feeling of his body on top of hers, his naked chest pressing down against her was making it hard to turn down his offer of staying in bed the rest of the day._

"_They won't call my parents. I'm emancipated," he replied, smirking at her before moving to kiss the other side of her neck. _

"_And every day since you got emancipated and moved into this apartment, I've had to rush to get back to class on time from lunch," she laughed. "Seriously Nathan, we have to go!"_

"_One. More. Minute," he whispered between kisses as he worked his way up to her neck to the spot underneath her ear that drove her crazy. Her hands wrapped around him as his soft lips brushed against that sensitive spot and then her nails dug in as he took her earlobe between his teeth, softly mumbling, "ditch" into her ear._

_When their lips met, he was pretty sure that they wouldn't be leaving the apartment anytime soon. One of her hands was running up and down his back, the other was scraping through his short buzz cut, sending shivers down his spine. When she pulled away a moment later, gasping desperately for air, he wondered if she would push him off of her and demand that he take her back to school. _

_Instead, with a small smile, she reached down, grabbed the hem of her thin camisole and pulled it over her head. Nathan rolled off of her and she instantly felt like an idiot. "I'm sorry. That was stupid. Maybe we should just go," she mumbled quickly as she tried to untangle her camisole so she could put it back on. _

"_Don't you dare put that back on," Nathan said, snatching the shirt from her hands and tossing it haphazardly onto the floor. She blushed as she watched his eyes look over her whole body; the soft curves of her hips, her full breasts which were almost plunging out of the bra she was wearing. Her hair was fanned out across the pillow she was laying on and her lips were red and swollen and in that minute, he knew he'd never find someone as beautiful as her if he lived for a thousand years. _

_Lying on his back next to her, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her on top of him so she was straddling his waist. "You're beautiful, you know that?" he said softly as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear with one hand, the other one resting on her hip, his thumb making small circles on her soft skin. _

"_You don't think it was stupid?" she asked softly before nervously taking her lip between her teeth like she always did. "I mean, maybe you didn't want me to..."_

_Sitting up a little bit, his lips softly brushed against hers, stopping her from continuing her sentence. "I don't think anything you do is stupid, Haley."_

_She smiled weakly at him again before moving off of him, instead cuddling herself against his hard, naked chest. "I don't want to be a tease, Nathan. You've been so great about waiting and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable."_

"_When you're ready, I'll be ready too," he said softly before kissing her lightly on the forehead._

"We can't ditch, Lucas," Haley said, before taking a sip of coffee from the paper cup in front of her. "They'd call Turner and we'd be stuck doing cafeteria supervision for a month."

"Yeah, you're right," Lucas agreed, running his hand through his hair. "I guess we'll just have to sit through it. At least we have each other," he added, smirking at Brooke.

"Oh, I hate you Lucas Scott," she mumbled, jabbing him in the sides with her elbow. "You're such a jack ass."

Haley smiled as she watched her two best friends bickering, like they always did. She wished she could tell them to just get together because they were wasting their time, but she never did. She didn't want to be the girl who gave relationship advice based on her one great love. So she sat back and watched them, hoping that one day they'd realize what she had known for years; that Brooke Davis and Lucas Scott were meant for each other.

"What is this?" he asked, taking the envelope from the Kelsey, the young, red headed nurse who was standing in front of him.

She smiled as she sat down on the edge of his bed. "It's your clean bill of health. You're a free man!" She started rattling off about his condition; how the damage done to his back had been healed through the intense rehab and how most of his memory had been regained, but he couldn't make himself focus on what she had been saying. The letter in his hands was his ticket out of Texas. "Come on Nathan! You can get out of here. Back home to North Carolina. To that girl you've talked so much about."

He ran his hand through his short hair. "I'm pretty sure I'm not going back to North Carolina and I'm positive that Haley won't want to see me."

"What are you talking about? You were practically engaged before you left for duty," Kelsey replied in her thick southern accent. "You've told me and every other girl in the place how much you love her. God, you could write your story and outsell The Notebook or any of those other romantic novels, any day! Why do you think she wouldn't want to see you?"

"She thinks I'm dead."

"I told you to call her! You're just a stubborn ass."

Nathan laughed softly. He'd come back from Iraq, unconscious with brain and spinal injuries. He'd been in a coma for close to two years and when, through some sort of miracle he'd woken up, he'd lost a lot of his memory. One thing that always stood out was Haley and as much as he'd wanted to over the last year, he didn't want to come back into her life when she'd moved on. He really was a stubborn ass.

"Well Nathan Scott, you don't have to go back to North Carolina but you can't stay here. The doctor signed your discharge papers and your bed has been given away. Time to make some decisions."


End file.
